My Genealogy Hound

JUDGE A. H. HARLAND, one of the first settlers of Kearney county, was, born in Butler county, Ohio, November 24, 1822. He is the son of John and Frances (Hoffman) Harland, the former being a native of Virginia and the latter of Pennsylvania. Both were reared in Kentucky, where they were married, and soon after removed to Ohio, and subsequently to Indiana. John Harland was a minister in the Christian church.

The subject of this sketch learned the wagon-maker’s trade when a young man, which vocation he followed for several years. He subsequently found farming more profitable and followed it for a few years in Montgomery county, Ind. He moved to Douglas county, Ill., in the fall of 1859, and continued farming for several years. In the spring of 1874, became to Kearney county, Nebr., bringing considerable stock and farming utensils with him, and took a homestead in May township and began at once to break prairie for a spring crop. The country was new, and settlers were few and far between; wild game, such as buffalo, antelope and deer, was plenty on every hand. He was poorly rewarded for his toil the first year, for the grasshoppers came when his crop looked most promising, and remained long enough to destroy all. The strange appearance of the pesky little things was a great mystery to the early settlers, and their disappearance two or three years later was equally as mysterious. The Judge declares in all candor that he has seen the ‘hoppers so thick that they fairly darkened the light of the sun as they flew over. Many settlers were not prepared for the famine caused by the grasshoppers, and in consequence there was great suffering among many. Mr. Harland was married, in 1846, to Miss Margaret Bailey. To this union were born seven children, namely — John M., Martha F., William M., Ashley R., Arthur B., Mary M., and James J.

Mr. Harland was elected judge of Kearney county in 1876 and was re-elected again in 1878. He has also filled various local offices. He has been a member of the Masonic order for forty years and both he and Mrs. Harland were members of the Christian church, the latter leaving the church below to join the church above in 1871. The homestead comprises one hundred and sixty acres of choice land adapted to raising almost any crop. Mr. Harland has always taken great interest in the planting of trees, and previous to its destruction by fire had one of the finest groves of timber in the county.